Online stalker posted an ad inviting people to RAPE a beautician but it was his victim who ended up in jail

Dawn DaLuise spent 11 months in prison before the truth came to light

By Anna Matheson

26th April 2017, 9:33 pm

Updated: 27th April 2017, 11:56 am

A WOMAN who was the victim of online stalking ended up in jail because her stalker reported HER to the police.

Dawn DaLuise, a beautician to the stars in Hollywood, was the victim of cyber stalking so bad that men turned up at her door to rape her after multiple adverts were posted on the internet claiming to be her.

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Dawn DaLuise spent 11 months in prison after she was accused on plotting the murder of her cyberstalker

Dawn, who has two daughters, endured months of terror from an unknown stalker who sent her threatening texts, slashed her car tyres and eventually threatened her children.

Dawn began her career in Hollywood 22 years ago and eventually worked her way up to owning her own salon, Skin Refinery, in Santa Monica.

Speaking to Channel 4's My Online Nightmare, Dawn said: “I have two daughters and wanted to show them the sky is the limit in this town… after many years in the industry I eventually got my own business.”

The beauty expert worked with stars such as Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt and Courteney Cox.

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When Dawn began receiving threats by text, she thought it was rival salon owner Gabriel Suarez that was behind them

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But when a rival salon appeared on Santa Monica Boulevard, Dawn didn't get on with the owner.

The new salon in the same building, Smooth Cheeks, was owned by fellow beautician Gabriel Suarez.

Dawn said: “I did not like this man, I’d had problems with him and I expected he wanted to take my clients.”

But soon after the salon's arrival, Dawn began getting a barrage of threatening texts from an unknown number.

Pictures of her apartment were sent to her along with shots of her car that had been Photoshopped to look as though it had been in an accident.

One text was a picture of the Grim Reaper with the message: "Aren't you afraid yet?"

Dawn had no idea who was sending her the texts, but her friend Edward Feinstein suggested her new rival Gabriel Suarez had been acting suspiciously and hanging around Dawn's car.

Dawn then believed that Suarez was behind the abuse, but as she had no concrete proof, the police could do nothing.

Not known refer to copyright holder

Dawn shares her story of dealing with cyber-stalkers on this weeks My Online Nightmare on Channel 4

Five months later, Dawn was still getting 500 texts a month saying “strange and terrible things”.

She then began getting texts from more numbers she didn’t recognise, with men asking to have sex with her.

One of the messages that read, "I saw your ad on Craigslist," prompted Dawn to look herself up on the internet.

The beautician then found an advert with a picture of her head Photoshopped onto the bodies of nude women engaged in sex acts.

She said: “It was a horrible feeling of shock and dismay."

The shocking advert included her phone number, name and home address.

The advert included the lines: “I will be waiting in my bedroom with a blindfold on, it’s my fantasy. Just break down my door, I want to be raped. Come get it boys, dinner is served.”

Dawn said: “I became so terrified because I didn’t feel safe. I expected the worst to happen.”

Soon, men were turning up at her door and refusing to leave - prompting multiple calls to the police.

Dawn said: “I would yell for them to go away and then I would hear them jiggling the door handle and then I could call for the police and then it would start up this cycle of ‘oh are you that woman who is always complaining about the cyber stalking?'"

Getty Images

After Dawn sent a text to her friend Edward Feinstein joking that she had hired someone to kill Suarez, she was arrested

But things got worse when her daughters were targeted; two flyers were made – a picture of Dawn's older daughter when she was about 12 Photoshopped on body of a woman having sex with multiple partners and another including a real modelling shot of her younger daughter advertising sex.

Dawn told the Channel 4 show: “Those two flyers were sent via email to parishioners at my church and they were also sent to my daughters.”

She added: "I just felt like none of this was fair, I hadn’t even done anything wrong to deserve this.”

For Dawn, a glimmer of hope came when she met former NFL lineman Chris Geile.

The ex football player offered her protection, saying he'd give Suarez dirty looks and put his arm around her.

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Dawn was a well-known celebrity beautician and worked with many Hollywood stars before the ordeal - here she is at a dinner with actor Gary Busey

Dawn said she then texted her friend Edward Feinstein joking: “I’ve found someone who is going to take Gabriel out.”

Soon after the text, Dawn was arrested and charged with solicitation to commit murder - the police thought she was about to attempt to MURDER her rival.

The charge carried a potential nine-year prison sentence and Dawn spent 11 months in jail waiting for her trial.

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Dawn was found innocent after a 17 day trial

She said: "The text I sent was a joke, but no one seemed to care.”

While she was in prison, to Dawn's shock, Edward Feinstein appeared on TV and claimed that Dawn had asked him to invent all the cyber stalking so she could blame it on Gabriel Suarez.

Ed made the explosive claim: “She wanted me to pretend to be Gabriel, send texts, post Craigslist ads. She wanted it to seem like she was being stalked so she could say it was Gabriel.”

Dawn said she was shocked and realised: “It was Feinstein – he was behind the cyber stalking and he had sent the police to my door.”

Eleven months later Dawn was found innocent at trial and the supposed hit man Geile wasn't charged due to lack of evidence.

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Dawn's friend Edward Feinstein, along with accomplice Nick Prugo, were eventually found guilty of the cyber stalking crime

Police email searches revealed an “incriminating” email to Ed from a known criminal who had frequently been at Ed’s home.

The criminal, a former colleague of Dawn's, Nick Prugo, had reason to be angry with her after she reported his partying to his parole officer and crushed his dreams of becoming a Hollywood star.

Two years after Dawn's horrific ordeal began, Nick Prugo and Edward Feinstein pleaded guilty to stalking.

But the solicitation to rape charge was dropped and the stalkers were given just 350 hours community service.

Dawn said: “When they were found guilty it meant that I could get on with my life… one day I want to Google my name and have something other than a mugshot come up."